Image: Unsplash / Adobe / Dr. Rath Health Foundation
In a significant U-turn, British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has admitted in court documents that its COVID-19 vaccine can cause deadly blood clots. Submitted in response to a class action lawsuit currently underway in the UK High Court, the move comes as deaths and severe injuries from the injection are increasingly resulting in plaintiffs seeking substantial damages. Developed in collaboration with Oxford University in the UK and produced by the Serum Institute of India, the vaccine is understood to have also triggered similar legal action against the firm in Italy, Germany, and other countries.
Representing a dramatic shift from its previous stance, AstraZeneca has now acknowledged that its COVID-19 vaccine can lead to Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS), a condition characterized by blood clotting and low platelet levels. The admission, contained in court documents, contrasts with the company’s previous assertions denying a direct link with the syndrome. With over fifty cases filed in the UK High Court, claimants and affected families are seeking damages expected to be worth up to £100 million. Some suggest the final compensation bill could even reach as high as £255 million.
Jamie Scott, a father of two, initiated the first UK case against AstraZeneca in 2023. He sustained a lasting brain injury, caused by a blood clot and brain hemorrhage, after receiving the firm’s vaccine in April 2021. Medical staff contacted his wife on three occasions during his hospitalization, informing her that he was going to die. Since having the vaccination, Mr. Scott has been unable to work.
While AstraZeneca still contests many of the cases, its belated acknowledgment of vaccine-induced TTS suggests a significant shift in its legal stance. Nevertheless, claimants’ lawyers have expressed frustration at the company’s delay in admitting to the link between the vaccine and severe side effects, which they say has been recognized by the international clinical community since late 2021. Moreover, the World Health Organization has also acknowledged the potentially life-threatening nature of the injection’s effects.
The identification of these risks has inevitably prompted government authorities to make changes to their COVID-19 vaccination strategies, particularly among younger age groups. The vaccine has now been discontinued in the UK, for example. Even as early as March 2021, more than a dozen other countries had already stopped using it. Lawyers representing families involved in the UK lawsuit say the injection’s efficacy has been “vastly overstated” and have expressed concern that its true toll may never be known.
As the UK legal proceedings unfold, the pursuit of justice for those impacted by COVID-19 vaccine-related deaths and injuries continues worldwide. Meanwhile, what is now certain is that the pharmaceutical industry has profited massively from the pandemic. It is therefore time for those whose health and lives have been damaged by the experimental injections to be justly compensated. Given however that governments have indemnified COVID-19 vaccine makers against lawsuits, the cost of any payouts seems likely to fall upon taxpayers. Coming at a time when much of the world is suffering from high inflation and a cost-of-living crisis, few will see this as fair.
There is surely something very wrong with a system of healthcare that allows pharmaceutical companies to profit from vaccines while avoiding responsibility for paying compensation to people whose lives have been ruined by them. Major healthcare reform, beginning with the termination of the ‘business with disease,’ is urgently needed.